The date is Nov. 5 and people were out and about in Bozeman wearing T-shirts today where temperatures were in the 60s as of late afternoon.
The area has seen a little bit of everything when it comes to the weather over the past several weeks. Here's a recap of the unusual fall.
Call it cold, call hit hot, you can pretty much call the last 10 weeks of weather anything; anything, that is, except normal.
On Oct. 1 as the area was saying goodbye to September and hello to October, it was saying goodbye to one of the warmest Septembers on record in Southwest Montana. Both Butte and Bozeman ranked in the top 10 warmest Septembers on record.
According to warning coordination meteorologist of the National Weather Service Ben Schott, this September was so extreme, it could be a once in a lifetime experience.
"When you look at the whole month as an average, I mean, that's a highly unusual event. Records have been kept back into the late 1800s, so you are talking one out of 110 to 115, you know, that's pretty significant there," Schott said.
Perhaps more amazing about the last several weeks is the abrupt change from summer to winter in just a matter of days.
On Sept 30 temperatures in Southwest Montana went from the 80s to 30s in just a 24-hour period.
Record highs changed to record cold temperature in just a matter of days. The area welcomed one of the coldest Octobers on record for the region. Such an abrupt change as we welcomed October, but is that common?
"We like to say here that October tends to ebb the transition month and it tends to be the biggest roller coaster ride. Think back a little bit. If you look through the records, you will see that October tends to give us the biggest ups and downs," Schott said.
As for the winter forecast for the area, and despite the fact that our fall that has been all over the place, the El Nino forecast still stands as we can expect a warmer and drier winter season, according to Schott.
Schott also emphasized that even though temperatures will be above normal, we will still see snow and perhaps a couple shots of that arctic air off to our north.
